Shadowed Dreams
by Widow's FeatherPen
Summary: [Title may change.] They say a past life can haunt you, if you repeat the errors you did then. But what if a past life is the only key to survival? And when others depend on what you knew?
1. Tattered Remains

_Domino, Japan - 1997 _**(1)**

_He rose from the bed silently, eyes half-lidded with sleep. In quiet steps he walked from his room to the bathroom next door, closing the door lightly, so as to not wake up someone else. He couldn't sleep, or rather didn't want to, no matter how tired he was. His dreams were despairing fragments, memories of something so long forgotten, that he tried to grasp them, but they swiftly escaped, flowing trough his fingers like oil before he could even focus._

_But he remembered the eyes. Burned into his mind, awake or not, were the blue glowing eyes of a powerful beast waiting to attack, hidden behind a delicate skin of polite kindness. Then there were the ruby eyes... twin rubies that glowed like fire, hate and deceit hidden by a thin veil of a false smile and a seductive body._

_But he could not fit a face, a gender, hair or a body to those eyes._

_They stared at him, soullessly, burning._

_

* * *

_

**Shadowed Dreams**

**Prologue - Tattered Remains  
**

* * *

_Kemet (Egypt) - approximately 3000 years b.C. _**(2)**

The house was small and ordinarily Egyptian, with only one room and a smooth rooftop. The first room had two makeshift beds, folded clothes and fabrics sitting atop a chair in a corner, a wooden basin filled with crystalline water placed beside it. A small table stood on the center, with three plates piled up. It also had a few wooden toys and ragged fabric dolls stacked up in a corner, a couple of hunting knives placed neatly atop a shelf too high for children to reach, a large bowl filled with fruits, another, almost empty, with flour, and a third with meat embedded in salt. There was a small space outlined with grey rocks, and the ground inside the circle was blackened by fire. The rooftop had one side with a wooden cover and the other had clothes hanging from a string attached to two poles, each on separate sides of the rooftop. Under the wooden structure were a few stones and other basins, either filled with water or dry clothes.

The curtain of white fabric covering the door shifted aside, letting a young woman pass. She held a bundle of clothes under one arm and a small wool bag filled with flour and a bottle of oil in the other hand.

This woman was o older than 20, but older than 17. Her skin was deathly pale, her face was thin and smooth, her teal-colored eyes were lined with dark kohl, and her slender body covered in a simple tunic that reached her knees. Her body was well developed, with average breasts, thin waist and long, fragile legs. Her small feet encased in fabric cream-colored shoes, she walked with soft, graceful steps towards the bed. Her waist-long hair was midnight blue, flowing freely.

She let the bundle of silk blue clothes rest on the bigger bed, pulled the bottle of oil and place it aside the bowl with fruits, and dumped the flour in the almost empty bowl. Rising, she inspected the room for a moment, noting the toys in the corner and the precariously made smaller bed. With a sigh and a small smile, she moved over to it, getting rid of wrinkles and straightening the covers, then moved to the toys and arranged them neatly, dividing the wooden toys and the fabric dolls.

She then walked outside, searching for something.

The small house was placed in the desert, the nearest oasis being much less than a day's walk north, and by this oasis was the palace of a noble that she served.

She walked around the house, smiling when she found what she had been looking for.

_"Aytsuku, Kisara..."_ she called softly, _"Let's go inside before Ra is gone and Thoth rises on Mother Nut's body..." _**(3)**

The two children that had been playing in the sand quickly rose and started gathering their things, while the woman turned and climbed the outside stairs leading to the roof. She gathered the clothes hanging, and folded them neatly inside an empty bowl, bringing it with her when going down. The night would be cold and useless to dry any other clothes.

Inside once again, she grabbed a few pieces of wood and placed them inside the circle of rocks, lighting them up in a way the children never understood, taking the three plates on the table and arranging them side-by-side. Taking flour and oil, she quickly made dough, and left it to bake near the small fire. She took three apples and grapes from the fruit bowl, placing one apple on each plate and leaving the grapes on the one she'd use.

Wiping her hands on her tunic, she pulled two small chairs and a stool, placing them around the small table.

She looked around again, frowning. Where were those children? It was late and she did not want her brother and her sister to be taken for whatever reason.

At that moment, the small girl came running in.

_"Sister An-nika! Sister An-nika! Aytsuku found something icky!" _The girl had, as any small children, a chubby face and a small body, with rosy skin. She looked no older than 8, shoulder-length hair and sapphire eyes. Her small tunic was tied at the waist with a thin rope. The little girl had a disgusted frown on her face.

_"Did he?" _An-nika asked, raising an eyebrow curiously, _"What did he find?"_

_"Sister An-nika! Sister An-nika!"_ the boy came running in, his face with a proud smile, _"Look at what I found!" _The boy was the same age as the girl, even though he was just a bit taller. His skin was deeply tanned, his hair touched his shoulders as well, and he wore a simple linen skirt, tied at his waist. His eyes were a bright ruby, and those who looked at them were reminded of _Ra's_ descent to the Underworld, when he would start the battle against _Apep_. **(4)**

_"Let me see,"_ An-nika murmured, kneeling on the ground.

The small boy came to her, hands closed over each other, encasing whatever it was he had found.

_"Do you know what it is?"_ Aytsuku asked curiously, peering at her and back to his hands as he opened them just enough for her to see.

An-nika paled. She wondered briefly where he had been to find it.

_"It's a scarab, Aytsuku," _she told him in a shaky voice, _"Now give it back to the sands where you found it, or the Gods might get angry."_

_"But..!" _he tried to protest. After all, the beetle was cute, he wanted to keep it.

_"The scarabs are sacred, Aytsuku," _An-nika told him sternly while rising, _"They guide souls to the Gods, and the Holy Priests use them to prepare the Divine Family to the afterlife. Now, give it back before the Divine's guards come looking for us," _she urged. **(5) (6)**

_"Okay," _Aytsuku murmured, subdued. He turned and walked outside to free the small beetle.

Kisara tugged at An-nika's tunic. Her wide sapphire eyes set in a frown.

_"Sister An-nika," _she called quietly, _"Why would the Gods be angry with us? Did we do something wrong?"_

_"No, Kisara," _she sighed,_ "The Divines would think we had stolen the scarab from them, and would have no mercy against us, especially you for being Set's favorite."_

_"Oh..." _the little child was confused, _"Sister An-nika... why would I be blessed by Set?"_

_"I do not know, Kisara..." _An-nika wondered why, herself,_ "but I am sure the Gods have plans for us..."_ she whispered, looking out the small window.

When Aytsuku came back, Kisara told him what An-nika had explained.

_"Is this why we were exiled, Sister An-nika?" _Aytsuku asked quietly, a quiet understanding dawning in his ruby eyes.

_"Only Kisara was truly exiled, Aytsuku. I was exiled for protecting her, and I could not leave you there to be treated like an animal. To them, you are a treasure to be displayed, a child blessed by Ra himself. I am a child of Nut, for Thoth's glow displays on my skin and the color of Nut's body shows in my hair. Kisara is blessed by Set, the Evil One." _she explained tiredly. **(7)**

To remember such a tale brought a terrible weight on her shoulders.

Aytsuku and Kisara quieted as An-nika took the baked bread and divided it in three neat pieces, giving one to each. The silence stretched over dinner. The three ate quickly, saying their prayers, thanking the food and wishing power to _Ra_ in his journey in the underworld before going to sleep. An-nika took the bigger bed and the twins shared the smaller one.

Nut blessed them with silence that night.

* * *

The loud laughter from the small house brought forth a tired smile from An-nika as she walked back from three days of work at the noble's house. She stepped inside and found the two children playing tag, Aytsuku fleeing from his sister. They were both giggling happily, carefully stepping around the furniture so as to not break anything. 

_"Did you two stay well in these three days I worked?" _she asked them. They turned to her, and their faces brightened with joy at seeing her back and well.

_"Sister An-nika! We're so glad you're back! Did something happen? Is everything alright? What took so long?"_

_"Yes, everything is fine. Lord Kasueer has a few friends visiting him, so I will have to be gone quickly again," _she peered at the bowls that held food, _"I'll buy some more fruits and another piece of meat."_

_"Sister An-nika, can you bring fish, too?" _Aytsuku asked shyly, fingers clutching at his linen skirt.

_"I will try. You two do remember how to make bread, do you not?" _she asked with a smile.

_"Yes, we do," _they chorused, returning with wide, open-mouthed grins.

_"Good," _she nodded approvingly.

_"Sister An-nika," _Aytsuku called quietly, suddenly subdued and nervous as one hand rose to his hair and he tugged on a few strands, _"Remember the scarab I found some time ago?"_

_"Yes,"_ An-nika frowned, kneeling on the ground to be eye-level with the twins, _"I remember. What is it?"_

_"I found him inside our home,"_ he told her, looking at the ground, _"I put him near one of the Holy Temples and fled..."_

_"You did well, Aytsuku. But none of you brought it inside?"_

They shook their heads, fidgeting. An-nika did not notice the book they held behind their backs.

_"If it appears again, leave it at the temple and warn me,"_ she rose. It was not natural for a scarab to do something like this... so why...

_"Sister An-nika, don't you have to go back to the palace?"_

_"Oh yes," _she sighed, forgetting her thoughts and brushing sand from her tunic, _"I do. Be careful you two. Do not draw attention to yourselves."_

_"Yes, Sister."_

She nodded before turning around and going back the way she had come, making plans to bring back a wooden chest with an iron lock.

* * *

_A couple of months later._

_"Sister An-nika, Sister An-nika!" _Aytsuku's panicked voice woke her from her light slumber. She had lain down on her bed to rest for some time after almost a week of uninterrupted work for the noble.

_"What is it, Aytsuku..?"_ her voice was thick with sleep, her tired eyes barely opening to see the fogged image of the room, the blur that was Aytsuku running to stand beside her bed. She slowly rose and as her eyes adjusted to wakefulness trying not to be annoyed with the little boy, when she noticed he was sweating lightly, his hands closed over each other.

Dreading what he would say, she waited.

_"Sister An-nika, I found him between the clothes you folded on the roof," _Aytsuku explained quietly, opening his hands slightly so she could see the scarab, _"I don't know how he got there, but..." _he sniffled, _"I didn't bring him," _he whispered in a small voice, afraid of her anger.

An-nika paled_— _if that was even possible with her naturally pale skin. A hollow feeling of dread and horror settled in her chest, surrounding her heart. She licked her lips, her throat suddenly dry, as her eyes focused and her mind clutched awareness with a vengeance.

_"Give it to me," _she called harshly, _"get your sister. See that chest over there?" _she pointed and did not wait for him to acknowledge it as the scarab was given to her, _"It is big enough to hide you both. Get her and hide in it, and **do not** come out, **not matter what you hear, smell or feel**. You will be safe when silence reigns once again, do you understand me?" _he nodded, frightened of her sudden change of demeanor, before running outside to call his sister.

An-nika rose, stumbling as her body adjusted, and walked outside. Aytsuku ran by her, pulling Kisara by the hand inside the house. An-nika nodded to herself and stood in front of the house, as if to protect it, the scarab in her hands. And she waited.

It was not long, however, before _they_ arrived. Guards of the Pharaoh's Palace, with gold-plated armor, some with spears, others with bows, arrows and daggers. They all mounted horses.

_"Woman," _the leader called, his voice harsh, _"A Guide has been stolen from the Pharaoh's Temple of Anubis. What do you know of it?" _**(8)**

_"I found it in the sands," _she called confidently, _"I believe it is this one?" _she opened her hands.

_"The Guide was stolen, woman, how do we know that you are not the thief we seek?"_

_"I only found it in the desert, my Lord."_

_"You lie," _a throaty male voice told them with disdain, _"You have not found it. Why do you lie, woman?"_

_"I found it in the sands,"_ An-nika insisted, sweating, _"I have no reason to steal one of Anubis' Guides."_

_"We will see about that," _the leader sneered, _"Ursek, I believe you remember the spells the Priest taught you?"_

_"Yes, sir."_

_"You have someone to practice them on."_

_Mother Nut, help me! _An-nika prayed desperately.

But An-nika's screams of pain sounded loud and terrible in the silent desert.

_"Stop it!"_

_No, Aytsuku... you were supposed to hide..._ An-nika thought feverishly, without being able to utter a sound. Twins yelps sounded as Aytsuku and Kisara were thrown aside her.

_"One blessed by Set?!"_ one of the guards howled angrily, staring at Kisara.

_"And one that Set must have sent to confuse us!" _another shouted, pointing at Aytsuku.

_"So this is what that woman hid," _one cried, outraged, _"These little demons must have stolen the Guide!"_

_"You!" _a soldier roared, raising a spear. In a clean movement, he impaled An-nika's heart. The young woman choked and gurgled, her eyes wide and filled to the brim with pain. Her soul was writhing, filling suddenly with hate. _They are my brother and my sister... how dare you... I will Torment you all until you have paid for your sins! _And with a final ear-splitting screech, An-nika's body dissolved into dust that was absorbed by a stone held by the man named Ursek.

_"Sister An-nika!" _Aytsuku screamed, _"Stop it! We did nothing!"_

_"Ursek."_

_"Yes, sir."_

Aytsuku and Kisara screamed as the spell hit them both at the same time.

_Burn, _was the only thing Aytsuku could think while staring numbly at the guards, _Burn! I will burn you all!_

_I wanted to be powerful, _Kisara sobbed, _so I could protect my family..._

Something resembling glowing dust left their bodies and were absorbed by one stone each, both in the hands of Ursek. He nodded to the leader, who turned and gave the signal to kill the two, but they all stopped when seeing the coming sandstorm on the distance. Clicking his tongue, the leader reunited the group and they all trotted away from the storm, leaving the twins behind. They regretted nothing.

Aytsuku gasped for breath as he crawled to his sister. He could feel life being drained out of him, taken by the stone in Ursek's hand. Reaching his sister, he gently turned her to face him. She was quietly crying, tears staining her light skin as she awaited death.

_"We're not going to die, sister..."_ he murmured gently.

_"You heard the spell he said, Aytsuku," _she sobbed, _"He said it wrong... there's no way we could survive without our Ba..." _**(9)**

_"I know," _Aytsuku flinched, _"I know... but there's still a way..."_

And, sobbing, the twins allowed the Shadow Realm to engulf them.

* * *

(1) I don't remember the _Yuugi-Oh! _timeline, so to give you guys a hint, this snippet should happen either before or in the middle of the series, and the story itself should happen after Memories Saga in the Anime. I'm starting to read the manga, only up to volume 10, so I'll be mixing things from both Anime and Manga. 

(2) _Kemet_ was one of the names by which Egyptians referred to their land. If I'm not mistaken, it means _Black Land_.

(3) _Ra_ represents the Sun, _Thoth_ represents the moon, and _Nut_ represents the Sky. In other words, she's asking them to go before the Sun is down and the Moon rises.

(4) The beliefs in Ancient Egypt was that when the Sun went down, _Ra_ had entered the underworld, and there he was either fighting with or fleeing from _Apep _or _Apophis_, a giant serpent. They created prayers and spells to either wish or give power to _Ra_ to help him in his journey between sundown and sunrise, ensuring he'd rise again the next day.

(5) Scarabs were said to represent, to a certain extent, the rebirth and afterlife. Especially the _Scarabaeus sacer _(the Egyptian dung-beetle). I won't go into details here...

(6) Here she refers to the Pharaoh's Family as "Divine". The Pharaoh himself was believed to be the incarnation of a God, namely Horus.

(7) While _Ra_ was worshipped as the _Great God_, and father to all other Gods, _Set _gained the reputation of being Evil, especially after killing his brother, Osiris.

(8) _Anubis_, or _Anpu_, was the God of Death, guide to recently departed and guardian of the Dead. He was patron of lost souls and orphans, and also of embalming. Here, I use him as God of Death, patron of embalming, and the Scarabs as his Guides to the Underworld.

(9) The Egyptian soul had nine aspects: the _Ren_, the _Ib_, the _Sheut_, the _Ka_, and the _Ba_. _Ren_ is a person's name, given to them at birth and would live as long as it was remembered and spoken. _Ib_ is a person's heart, where emotion and thought is contained. _Sheut _is a person's shadow, as there was no person without a shadow nor a shadow without a person, Egyptians believed the shadow carried something of the person it represented. _Ka _is a person's life force, what the living have and the dead don't. _Ba_ is a person's soul or personality. The other four are the physical body and the 3 divine aspects of the soul, which can be understood as one, the _Akhu_. (Thank you **S-S**!)

* * *

**Aika:** I have plans for where this is going, even though it's not written. Don't worry...much. Any questions that might arise, I may answer in the story itself. If not, I'll answer directly. I don't know everything, but I'll do my best to answer. 


	2. Lifeless

_Domino, Japan - A phone call at 7:37am_

_"I don't know what happened. I just woke up and my hair reached my thighs. It's not too noticeable, since my hair was already to my middle backs, but I'm shocked. I've tried to convince mom to bring you, but you know how she is."_

_"Yeah, I know. I've got the same problem, I woke up and my hair reached my waist. It's downright weird, I went to sleep with it to my shoulders and now it's so damn long..."_

_"...I'm going to try to convince mom again."_

_"I'll go, anyway. If she doesn't want me in her house, I'll just get a job and rent an apartment somewhere."_

_"You're feeling it too, aren't you?"_

_"You mean the panic? Yeah. Like if we let them know everything, it's all going downhill. I can guess why."_

_"Heh. True. Be careful, okay?"_

_"You too. I'm going to visit Yuugi, see if he knows anything. Even if he doesn't, I'm packing."_

_"Okay. Bye."_

_"Bye."_

* * *

**Shadowed Dreams**

**Chapter 1 - Lifeless**

* * *

_Domino, Japan - Thursday, November 25th, 1999, 6:53am._

The room was small and, at first glance, unkept. But aside from the fact that the walls and floor were naturally dirt-like, the room was clean and organized in a way. The desk had two piles of school books and an extra pile of random papers and novel books, the wardrobe with just enough clothes for a person to go by, doing laundry every other day. Under the small bed, hidden, were a few electronic games, one broken and a couple others of different kind.

The bed itself wasn't made only because of the teen currently sleeping on it.

Though _Jounouchi, Katsuya_ woke breathless from a strange but heart-breaking dream with a hoarse cry. The blond sat there for a few more moments, gasping for breath he had unconsciously held while sleeping.

_What was... what was I dreaming?_

Desperately, he tried to hold onto the images of the dream, but most of them slipped away and he only managed to clutch a few details and bits of nonsense.

_Anise._ A warm scent.

_Impalement._ A moment of unexplainable pain in his chest, but purely physical.

_A cry._ _"Don't go, please!"_

_And **him**._

_What was Kaiba doing in my dream, anyway? _Jounouchi thought, closing his light caramel eyes in frustration and weakly punching his bed.

_Wait, _he furrowed his brow, suddenly remembering something more, _that wasn't Kaiba. It was that High Priest, Seth._

Confused, he opened his eyes again, staring at the opposite wall and wondering why he'd dream of something that had nothing to do with him. After all, neither he, Anzu or Honda had been in Egypt with the Pharaoh and the Thief.

_At least not outside the Memories._

He sighed, standing from the bed. His eyes fell shut and he swayed slightly. Now that the adrenaline from the dream (_was it a nightmare?_) had passed, interrupted sleep came back full force, and he struggled to stay on his feet so he could go to the bathroom wash his face and maybe take a shower.

Five minutes later had him coming back into the room, feeling cranky, to shut down the beeping alarm clock.

His head felt heavy, but he ignored it, thinking it was just sleep weighting him down. Slowly walking to the bathroom, he took his time so he could think.

_That dream was downright weird, _he snorted suddenly, _but it's not like it's weird for Kaiba to appear in my dreams._

Stupid Kaiba. Always appearing where he wasn't invited, making Jounouchi lose all reason and even the cool logic he had acquired when in the streets gangs. After all, Jounouchi had had to _think_ to survive all those places, all those fights, even the police. And the blond had quite the extensive criminal record... not that Yuugi needed to know, though he probably wouldn't even care, either way.

Stupid Kaiba. It wasn't like Jounouchi knew him all that well, even though in some moments... he felt as if the brunet should have said something more, or done something nicer, it wasn't like the brunet had lost his heart... even if it did seem like that sometimes, and it made Jounouchi feel hopeless.

_Kaiba's got something of mine. Gotta get it back._

Startled, Jounouchi let the soap fall to the ground. Kaiba _did not _have anything of his. The brunet might have something the blond wanted (his money, of course. Nothing else) but nothing he had _now_ had ever been Jounouchi's. Face set in a frown, Jounouchi shook his head and retrieved the soap, washing his hands.

The blond's entire body felt somewhat weighted down, but he ignored it. It was just sleep after all.

What the blond truly wished he knew was the source of the tangle of mixed feelings that arose only when he was face-to-face with the blue-eyed teen. Some he knew were his, like the natural anger that he felt when Kaiba acted like a true jerk, like the indiference to his status in the society, and his compassion when he saw Kaiba interacting with Mokuba. Other feelings felt as if from another person entirely, such as muffled feelings of hurt, regret, and confusion, and the _Rage_. An utter black and hate-full _Rage_, that tempted him to do things to Kaiba. Dangerous, lethal things.

At Duel City's finals, at night, Kaiba had paused in whatever work he had been doing and simply stood, looking outside the glasses that protected the inside of the zeppelin, unknowingly leaving an opening for the blond. Jounouchi didn't know what Kaiba was doing or thinking. For a moment, the blond had watched him numbly, indifferently, with his mind empty.

The _Rage_ took over for a few moments. When the blond came back to himself, he was just a few inches away from the brunet's backs, hands outstretched and poised to push the other through the window, to fall to his death. No witnesses.

Jounouchi had fled before Kaiba turned around. The blond still shivered when he remembered that.

Then, there was the last feeling from the bundle. Something that made Jounouchi terrified of ever recognizing. Not that he was afraid of figuring it out, but every time he tried to, a wave of blind panic would sweep him off his feet, sometimes turning into a panic attack. In the worst attack, he had fainted in the halls of the school, luckily Honda had been there for him. He had stopped trying to identify it after the first couple times, (even though that didn't mean he didn't occasionally try).

_I must look like shit right now, _Jounouchi concluded, without looking at the mirror, mostly to distract himself, since he already felt the familiar fear rising in his throat. It worked and the feeling subsided.

Speaking of which, his appearance wasn't the best of things. Sure, he had a pretty face, (he knew how to evaluate his body, no depressing thoughts of _oh, I'm so ugly..._), but his hair was abnormal. The roots almost seemed like they would have a dark color, but then they'd lighten up, turning into the ugly dirty-blond his hair was. As if that wasn't enough, his hair was rough, looking like it had been bleached (and he swore up and down, on heaven and hell, that he never tried to do anything to his hair. Anzu never believed that it was natural).

His hair felt like all life had been drained out of it, as if there was something missing. And no amount of doctor consulting to check what might be wrong with his body could identify the problem. His mother had done enough of that. He was as healthy as he could be, and yet his hair should have been the silky blond of the German people, genes he had gotten from his father. If not that, then the Japanese silky touch and the yellow color of the German. There was no reason for his hair to be like that.

_I'm so weird,_ he thought tiredly.

He washed his hands, then, closing his eyes all the way, washed his face.

Raising his head with a resigned sigh to face the usual pretty face with ugly hair, Jounouchi bit back a startled curse.

_What in the..?_

* * *

_Kame Game Shop, 7:14am._

Yuugi was a nice guy, really. He didn't curse people left and right, he did all his homework and he even helped his grandfather whenever he could around the shop.

But anyone knows that a phone ringing is _not_ a nice way to wake up. More so when the one who bought the phone chose quite an annoying ring tone.

Several curses later, Yuugi crankily picked up the phone, wondering for a moment what crime or sin he had commited to deserve such an irritanting phone.

"What is it?" he growled. His voice lost most of its intimidating tone with all the sleep it conveyed.

_"Sorry, Yuugi,"_ Jounouchi's shaky voice answered, not really sounding sorry, _"But this is kinda urgent. I'm not going to school today, can you skip too so I can see you?"_

Suddenly awake, Yuugi's eyes widened in surprise.

"Jounouchi-kun? What happened?" he asked worriedly.

_"Nothing too weird,"_ Jounouchi laughed nervously, _"At least not for us..."_

The last mumbled part made Yuugi frown. _For us...?_

"I'll tell grandpa. Come on over, and you can explain."

_"I think you'll understand when I get there..."_

Yuugi didn't comment on that before hanging up.

"Grandpa?" he called while pulling a shirt over his head. At hearing a questioning noise, he continued, "Jounouchi-kun's coming over, something happened that he didn't tell me on the phone," here he pulled casual pants on, "I think it's something to do with magic."

Sugoroku Mutou opened the door with a raised eyebrow. "I thought everything was over?"

"Apparently not," Yuugi replied, clicking his tongue, "but I wonder what we're getting ourselves into, this time."

"Just be careful," the old man said with a sigh, "I wouldn't want to bury you before I die..."

"Grandpa!" Yuugi called, shocked. The elder man had never said anything like that...

"It's true," he continued with a fond look at the teen, "I never told you this before, but I wouldn't want to see you die while I am still alive."

Eyes tearing, chest heavy, Yuugi looked away. "Okay, grandfather," he whispered hoarsely, "I'll be careful."

Sugoroku hugged his grandson and ignored the sudden wetness on his shoulder. Yuugi didn't want his crying to mentioned, as his lack of audible sounds hinted. With a fond smile, the elder remembered how proud Yuugi could be, sometimes. _Reminds me of a certain Royalty..._

Half an hour later, after a few phone calls to his friends, Yuugi had composed himself and was opening the door to a flustered Jounouchi.

"Well? What it is?" Yuugi frowned suddenly, closing the door behind the blond, "And why are you wearing a cap?"

Jounouchi sighed with a small blush, "Because of this," he murmured, taking off the red cap.

Blond hair fell swiftly past his shoulders to his waist. Yuugi gaped.

"How... I mean, how did... I saw..."

"I know I went to school yesterday and it was only to my shoulders, or not even that, but I swear I didn't do anything. I just woke up and it was there!"

"...are you sure it's not a wig?"

"You can pull, if you want," the blond said, exasperated. He became frustrated when Yuugi did just that, before examining the roots of his hair.

"Well," the smaller teen murmured, surprised, "we can cross out someone doing a prank, it does look like your hair. But I never knew you bleached it, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't," Jounouchi murmured, throwing his hands in the air, "It's naturally like that, don't ask me why. Mother sent me to doctors, and Anzu still doesn't believe me when I say it."

"Hard to," Yuugi murmured absently, examining his friend's head once again, "It's actually weird, because the roots hint to something like brown or even black."

"I know," he sighed tiredly.

"Right, did you consider cutting it?"

"Err, not really..." the blond smiled sheepishly.

"Grandpa! Bring the scissors!"

* * *

"YUUGI!" 

_That's Honda, _Jounouchi thought fondly with a small smile, his head resting on the table.

"Hi, Honda-kun! Anzu-chan!" Yuugi greeted them cheerfully. He probably had a smile on his face too.

"Whoa, who's the blonde babe?"

"Watch it, shark-head," Jounouchi growled without raising his head. _That's Honda alright_, he rolled his brown eyes. A stunned pause followed before Yuugi tried to say something.

"Err, I think you guys should sit," the sound of wood scraping the ground indicated the star-haired teen had pulled two chairs closer to the table.

Two additional thumps told the blond that Honda and Anzu had unceremoniously dropped down on them.

_Shock must've been good. Should I look? Their faces might be priceless right now._

Ah, yes. Good thing he raised his head. He didn't stop the smirk that bloomed at their wide-eyed stares.

"Hi," he murmured nonchalantly.

"Hi," they muttered back, without thinking. They suddenly realized what was happening.

"Jounouchi?" They chorused, "What happened, how did you do that, are trying some kind of prank?"

"No," he grounded out, annoyed, "I don't know what happened, I did nothing, and I'm not doing some stupid prank," he rolled his eyes. Really, sometimes they got on his nerves.

"And I've confirmed it, his hair did grow," Yuugi intervened before they could say anything else. Jounouchi thanked the Gods that Yuugi was so sensible. _Unlike some people, _he glared at the other two.

"Now what, then..?" Anzu asked quietly.

"I don't know!" Jounouchi let his head fall on the table, "Yuugi tried to cut it, and the moment I went past some shadows, it grew again to this size! And Yuugi tried _five times!_"

Silence. Jounouchi raised his head, expecting an answer, looking at their somewhat shocked faces.

"What?"

"Did you say... _shadows?"_ Yuugi asked weakly.

Jounouchi paled.

"You don't think--!" Anzu didn't finish, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"It's not possible!" Honda argued, tired and defeated.

"They're gone," Jounouchi murmured quietly, looking away.

Silence suffocated them again. Yuugi bit his lip, trying to ignore the hollow feeling in his stomach.

"But it doesn't mean the Shadows are gone," he said fiercely, "Let's check with Ishizu-san. She knew the powers even without the Items."

Jounouchi shifted slightly, suddenly anxious.

"Do you think you could do it quick, Yuugi? Still today I need to pack, I'm going to visit my sister."

They blinked at him, surprised.

"I'll try, but I can't promise anything," Yuugi smiled gently, remembering how much the blond loved his sister, "either that, or we'll talk to you when you get back."

"That's the thing, Yuugi..." Jounouchi sighed and shifted again, "I think I'm going to spend a month or more there."

"Well... congratulations, man. Weren't you always talking about living with your sister?" Honda slapped him on the back with a wide smile.

"Yeah... but I'm gonna miss you guys," he muttered with a blush, looking down.

"We'll miss you too, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi patted his shoulder and smiled at him, "But we'll keep in touch, right? It's not the end of the world."

"Right," Jounouchi smiled, relieved, "But don't jinx it, Yuugi. It's not the end of the world, _yet_."

They chuckled.

* * *

One phone call and half an hour later found the teens talking quietly in the living room. Ishizu had been staying for a few days with Malik and Rishid in Japan, and it almost seemed as if she had been waiting for Yuugi's call. But she did not have the Tauk anymore, and Yuugi couldn't help but wonder what had told her he'd need her help and expertise. 

Yuugi went to answer the doorbell as it rang.

"I wonder what Ishizu-san will say..." Anzu murmured thoughtfully.

Jounouchi had a bad feeling. He felt suddenly somewhat panicked and in the need to run, but held himself there since he didn't know the cause, and he couldn't simply leave his friends wondering where he went. Honda quieted them. Yuugi's voice sounded quietly, unintelligible words sounding somewhat worried and surprised.

"That doesn't sound like her," Anzu murmured with a frown. She turned her head, straining her neck, trying to see trough the door, and Honda did the same. Jounouchi was farther away, making it impossible to peek on who it was. He shifted uneasily.

"Sounds like a guy," Honda muttered. Jounouchi tensed, praying desperately it was Bakura or Otogi, because besides them, since it was not Ishizu, could only be...

"Guys," Yuugi's surprised voice sounded as he rounded a corner and entered the room, "It's not Ishizu..."

"You don't need to introduce me, Yuugi," the steely voice sounded mockingly as its owner rounded the same corner and entered the room, "For one, I can do it myself, and for other, they all already know me."

"He wasn't going to introduce you," Jounouchi growled, annoyed, in Yuugi's defense as he saw the smaller teen's shoulders drop, "he was going to warn us that your highness was here, and required us to bow to the ground."

"And you'd do it gladly, wouldn't you, mutt?" Kaiba sneered back at him. He seemed quite irritated. The brunet suddenly blinked, surprised, "Are you wearing a _wig?_"

Jounouchi let the anger flow as a defense against the pure, black rage that threatened to overwhelm him, and wanted nothing else but to take the glass beside him, break it into pieces and embed each and every one slowly into the brunet. He ignored the question, so focused on keeping a tight leash on his murderous intents.

"Seto-kun, Jounouchi-kun, please stop..." Yuugi asked with a tired sigh, and he didn't notice Jounouchi's narrowing of eyes at the use of the brunet's first name, "Seto-kun came here because Ishizu-san called him."

"Oh, wonderful," Jounouchi murmured dryly, just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear him, "Another _Save the World _Quest, and we have to put up with _stick-up-my-ass_ Kaiba."

The brunet glared at him, but said nothing. The doorbell rang again.

"This time it must be Ishizu," Yuugi ignored them both, "Behave, guys," or maybe not.

When the small teen left, the group stayed silent, Jounouchi and Kaiba locked in a glaring contest. The voices in the other side of the open door made Anzu and Honda turn their heads with interest, but Jounouchi just narrowed his eyes a bit more. He was trying to muffle the jealous hurt in his chest (Yuugi never called _him_ by his first name... but he also never said the other could do so), and, at the same time, controlling the murderous rage with his natural anger at Kaiba.

"Ah, good," Ishizu's voice made them break the eye-contact and turn to her, "you are almost all here, and thank you for coming, Kaiba-san."

"Just get to the point, Ishizu," he growled impatiently, turning away.

"We have two main issues here," Ishizu ignored Kaiba and went on, "the first one being your hair, Jounouchi-san. May I have a look?"

The blond nodded once, and let her approach to analyze his hair. She took a few moments, murmuring things here and there, gave a sharp nod to Malik, who Jounouchi just noticed stood aside Yuugi along with Rishid and straightened.

"It's definitely work of the Shadows. Why they affect your hair like this, I don't know," she stated, taking a couple of steps back.

"What do you mean, _affect?_" Jounouchi frowned, somewhat alarmed, "Wouldn't it be _affected?_"

"No," she looked at him with a calculating gaze, "Did you never wonder why your hair seems so lifeless?"

"Yeah, but I as born with it, so I didn't worry," he furrowed his brow, "are you saying it was the Shadows all along?"

"Yes," she said sternly, "I did not notice before, because it was so little energy," she told him quietly, her gaze prodding into his eyes, "But now it is easy to see, if one looks for the energy of the Shadows. Your hair, it seems, is supposed to be quite a dark shade, like chocolate brown."

Jounouchi was speechless. _Who would guess that the hair color I've been born with was the wrong one_, he thought dryly.

"And I, unfortunately, don't know the cause or a way to fix it. Since it will do us no good to dwell on it, I will pass onto the next problem, if you will?" she looked at him, and he nodded, "The second issue," Ishizu went on, "Is with you, Kaiba-san."

"I have no issues," he growled, startled, glaring at her.

"Really?" she asked smugly, "Then tell me, how have you been sleeping these days?"

Kaiba snarled, but said nothing. The group noticed then the purplish circles under his eyes.

"What do you dream of, Kaiba-san? Maybe we can help."

He closed his eyes tiredly, looking resigned, rubbing his temples. He had not sat, preferring to cross his arms and lean against the wall.

"I don't know," he finally murmured, shoulders droping slightly, "The only thing I can remember are their eyes. The eyes of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon placed in a person's face, and those ruby eyes that seemed to hate me so much..."

"Do you remember nothing else?" Ishizu asked soft and curiously, head tilting to the side, "Perhaps outside these dreams?"

Kaiba said nothing for a moment.

And then, he opened his mouth and a completely different language flowed out, one that Yuugi knew because the Pharaoh had taught him, one that Ishizu and Malik knew by heart. One that Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda were not supposed to understand.

_"I grew up in Kemet,"_ the ancient dialect flowed from the brunet's mouth in a way so fitting, it almost felt completely right to hear him speak it, _"alongside peasants. My mother worked to sustain us, but I only started working when I was 8 years old. It didn't last, mother died the next year and I was taken to be trained as a Priest by the Seer Priestess of the time. One year before I completed my training, I met Kisara. She was captive to a group of bandits that displayed her like some kind of prize. I freed her and fled, but the bandits destroyed the village I lived in, though they were killed by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that appeared there. I haven't remembered much after that."_

The stunned silence reigned after he stopped, a soft tapping indicating rain was falling outside.

Yuugi glanced around the room. Honda was frowning, as if trying to understand something. Anzu was looking wide-eyed at Kaiba, and Jounouchi seemed just shocked. Kaiba had kept his eyes closed throughout his tale, while Ishizu watched him. Malik was discussing something with Rishid in low tones, sparing glances every now and then to the brunet.

"Kaiba-san?" Ishizu called softly. He didn't answer, eyes still closed, breathing softly.

"He's sleeping," Malik informed quietly, moving a few steps forward, "Yuugi, do you have a spare room or bed?"

"Yes, do you need help?"

"I can do it," he grunted, passing one of Kaiba's arms behind his neck and holding tightly to the other's waist, "lead the way."

Yuugi nodded, walking upstairs. Malik followed him, grunting in the way. Kaiba felt like dead weight, and the brunet wasn't even aware enough (no matter how subconsciously) to walk. Rishid snorted and slung Kaiba's other arm around his own neck, taking half the weight. The two quietly dragged the CEO after Yuugi, dodging the couches and the small table on the way.

"I guess that means he's half dead..." Jounouchi murmured, subdued. The worry he felt when Kaiba was hurt and not fighting with him had started up again. He sighed.

"I believe he went into a trance, from trying to force his mind to remember more," Ishizu murmured gravely, "it is not dangerous, if he stops forcing his mind soon."

They quieted. The rain had started to pick up, giving a subdued mood to them all. Yuugi came back, Malik and Rishid right behind him.

"What does this mean?" Yuugi asked.

"A few days ago," Malik started with a sigh, they all turned to him, "sister was saying prayers to _Osiris_ and _Nephtys_. I don't know what came over me, I swear," he fixed a pleading gaze on his sister, "I don't even quite remember what I was doing--"

"He ran outside our house," Ishizu interrupted, "Entered a half-buried temple and spoke to the air in the ancient tongue. He was mourning at seeing what _had become of the Temple of Anubis_. Saying that _'his sister'_ would behead anyone responsible for this, wondering where the Pharaoh and the High Priest were... he also mentioned someone else I could not really identify. I understood only that this person seemed to be a servant of the High Priest," her eyes glazed over in thought, "maybe a Priest of a lower rank...?"

"And you remember nothing else, Malik-kun?" Yuugi asked with a frown.

"No," the blond shook his head, "When I came back to myself, I was at the temple we all had learned was of _Osiris_ with Ishizu staring at me in shock. She checked me over," and he added behind his hand, "You know how overprotective _she_ is," Ishizu lightly hit him over the head, "and found traces of Shadow Magic."

Yuugi, Honda and Anzu turned to Ishizu, waiting for more. Jounouchi, though he was listening, was thinking about a few other things as well.

"I found traces of Shadow Magic in his eyes and mind. Have you looked at his eyes?"

They blinked and turned to look at the blond as one. Malik shifted embarrassedly. His once lavender eyes seemed to be lightning colored, a mix of light blue and yellow.

"Your hair's also more platinum blond than the regular blond it was before," Jounouchi pointed out, his face in a frown.

Ishizu blinked, turning to gaze at her brother. "True," she murmured frowning, "this must've happened after that incident, though. Malik?"

The blond was inspecting his own hair. _Curious... it feels familiar, as if it fits better than the darker shade it was before._ Ishizu quieted, waiting.

_"Sister, Isis,"_ he murmured, _"This feels better."_

The group blinked at him.

"Malik?" Ishizu called quietly. He turned to her with a distant stare. Suddenly, his eyes focused and he gasped, clutching his head. "Malik!" Ishizu called, alarmed. But Malik fell to the ground in a dead faint before any of them could reach him.

"Rishid," Yuugi called quietly, standing aside the blond, "help me bring him."

"I can do it, Yuugi-sama," the taller man murmured, swiftly taking Malik in his arms, "to the same room Kaiba-sama is?" at Yuugi's nod, he turned and walked away.

The silence stretched. Jounouchi fidgeted.

"Guys," he called, "I-- I've gotta go. I'll see you guys in a month," he murmured, anxious. For a fleeting moment, he wondered why his gut feeling was telling him to bolt from there and never come back...

"Okay, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi smiled, "Good trip and say hello to Shizuka-chan for us, would you?"

"Sure thing," the blond grinned and flashed them a victory sign, "Bye."

"Bye, Jounouchi!" the others chorused.

* * *

He adored Yuugi, really, he did. 

Yuugi was a proud little guy, not really innocent but he was fair. Having enough facts, the teen would judge anyone quite fairly, even if it meant letting enemies free and friends take the blame (only, of course, if his friends _were_ guilty). Yuugi was the only one who really didn't care what he did, who forgot a minor mistake the next day, who tried to help him whenever possible, because he knew the blond had a good heart and a smart head.

Jounouchi stumbled in the rain, his bag containing his few possessions (novels, clothes, games and his deck) clutched to his chest. Why was his head spinning so much?

He had already taken the train that brought him nearer Shizuka's home, and he was a few blocks away. If he could only get there before he fainted...

Yuugi was someone fierce, someone nice. He'd protect those that earned his trust with a passion, sacrificing his life, his soul, his heart, his mind, his name, and even his shadow...

_His shadow?_ Jounouchi blinked vaguely at the thought, _What would the sacrifice of his shadow mean?_

The blond shook his head. Shadows are just that, shadows. _Except, of course, for the shadows in the Shadow Realm_, he thought sarcastically. His foot caught a corner of the sidewalk and he tripped, falling face-first on the ground. He groaned quietly in pain. Couldn't the Gods leave him alone just this time..? Just this life?

Head spinning, thoughts jumbling together, Jounouchi raised himself slowly, staring at the reflection of his reddish-brown eyes in a puddle of water. Standing, he started walking again, his mind a chaos of thought. His feet slowly but surely brought him to his mother's house, where his sister was. _Sister better be alright... I'd never forgive myself..._

He rapped at the door slowly.

_Gods... Ra... what is happening with me..?_

When the door opened, he was surprised to find himself staring into sapphire-blue eyes.

Then, he knew no more.

* * *

**Obs.:**_ **1. **I am using italics with quotes ("") to the Ancient Egyptian language. Thoughts are italics without quotes._

_**2.** Aytsuku and An-nika are **NOT** Original Characters, at least partly. Kisara is a Canon Character._

* * *

**Aika:** Hi. As I said before, any **DOUBTS**, ask. Any **ERRORS** you find, kindly tell me. And **comments** would be nice. 


	3. Nameless

_Kemet (Egypt)_

_"Curse me!" she clutched at his ceremonial robes, tears cascading down her cheeks, turning her face into a perfect picture of hurting grief, "Curse me, Aytsuku! For all I have said and done to you, curse me!"_

_"My Lady..." he protested feebly, his red eyes pained, "please, don't..."_

_"Just this once, Aytsuku! He's my husband!" she cried desperately, "I beg of you!" she sobbed, hiding her face in his chest._

_"Aytsuku!" The Priest that had turned the corner called, alarmed._

_Aytsuku closed his eyes, black hair shadowing his face slightly, already regretting what he was about to do. Pulling her up slightly, he pressed his lips to her ear, whispering._

_When the Priest reached them, the red-eyed youth had already uttered her curse. It was not possible to reverse it now._

_But she turned her backs to him when he refused her next request, and ran away. The young redheaded Priest spared him a glance as he ran after the Lady._

_And Aytsuku was left to grieve alone for what he had done._

_Far away, and long after, two youths woke screaming._

* * *

**Shadowed Dreams**

**Chapter 2 – Nameless**

* * *

_Somewhere, Japan - November 25th, 1999, 10:51pm._

They huddled together, trying to warm themselves despite the rain beating the broken umbrella they tried to hide under. It worked to a certain extent, they both were warm, but droplets of freezing water hit their shoulders or backs every now and then.

They were the picture of street teens, with no homes and no money, trying their best to survive against the weather and the indifference of people passing by.

She was worried. His temperature was rising steadily to a point of aggravated sickness, but he swore he felt no different. If possible, he felt better. He was feeling steadily warmer, hoping she'd share in his warmth, and, at the same time, not get any illness he might have.

The few scraps of food they had were at their end. As soon as the rain stopped, they would have to look for some low-paying job to have some food. But they were tired. The alleyway they hid in already held a part of the falling water with its makeshift roofs and tall walls when the rain fell sideways, but the cold winds could not truly be stopped, and their clothes were already ripped beyond repair. Hers, because of the gangs that had wanted to rape her, and his, for fighting with fists against blades to stop them.

_"I wish we could go back,"_ she whispered fearfully, a harsh language slipping from her lips like honey.

_"We can't..."_ he murmured softly, hands running through her hair to try to calm her.

Though soon, they did not remember where '_back'_ was.

When the rain subsided to a light drizzle, someone came to talk to them. Some random person had noticed they were minors and called the authorities. The two were taken to a police station so their homes could be found.

But they had no identities. Their fingerprints had led to nothing. The documents they had did not match their appearance -- in fact, they were documents of two males --, and particularly the girl looked like a foreigner. The boy was so attached to her, they could only assume they were related or lovers, the latter being more plausible, considering they were quite different physically. Then the police tried to question them.

"Excuse me," a young woman called. As they turned to her she kindly asked, "May I know your names?"

They blinked at her, confused. What was she speaking? The woman, on the other hand, frowned. Were they going to be difficult? She hardened her voice.

"I need to know your names," she stated, no kindness left in her face or voice.

The boy narrowed his eyes, wary. He passed an arm around the girl's shoulders, hugging her to his chest so as to protect her.

_"Who are you?"_ he snapped.

The woman suddenly blinked. Well... they didn't speak Japanese, of that they were sure. And the language he spoke... she had never heard. She could speak Japanese, Chinese, English and Portuguese, and identify many others... but this...

She gave them both a shaky smile before walking away.

"Sir!" she called loudly, the shaky smile still firmly in place, "We've got a problem. Didn't **anyone** try to talk to them?"

* * *

_Domino, Japan - Friday, November 26th, 1999, 2:14am._

Yuugi took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. It wasn't really working. He ran a shivering hand through his hair, closing his eyes. His entire body shook as he felt his soul reverberate to a sound he could not hear, a feeling he could not place.

After a few moments, he tried to remember what had made him wake up screaming, and he gradually remembered his dream. He pressed a hand to his chest, where the sensation of a blade lingered.

_A gold dagger with the Eye of Horus._

Yuugi shuddered, suddenly remembering he hadn't been the only one to scream. Shakily rising from his bed, he pulled on a random shirt, as he had gone to bed only in pants, and left his room. In the living room, Ishizu gave him a look as he passed, nodding. She was trying to calm down Anzu and Honda, who had been woken by his screaming. Rishid was looking out a window, a thoughtful frown on his face.

_So it wasn't them._

"Yuugi! You alright?" Honda asked, his face etched with worry. Yuugi smiled weakly.

"Yeah. Just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep, Honda, Anzu," he chastised softly.

They reluctantly obeyed, and Yuugi went back to the other rooms of the house, searching for the source of the scream that had echoed his own. Gently easing open the door to the room Malik and Kaiba had been placed in, he stepped inside, finding no objects out of place. Malik was still sleeping, occasionally mumbling and turning in the bed. Kaiba, however, was sitting, his entire form shaking like a leaf.

"Seto-kun?" the small teen called, closing the door as he entered the room, "Are you alright?"

"Fine," his voice sounded strained. Yuugi paused.

"You dreamed too, didn't you?" the quiet question made Kaiba snap his head in his direction, ice-blue eyes boring into him, demanding an explanation. The star-haired teen chuckled, "Yeah, I dreamed it. I screamed as much as you when I woke up."

The brunet looked away, a faint red tinge on his nose.

"What do you remember?" Yuugi asked him, sitting on a chair beside the bed.

"I remember red eyes, " the brunet sighed, "I looked at them for only a moment... and I remember someone committed suicide."

"I... think that was probably me..." Yuugi shivered. The other suddenly shifted and took hold of the smaller teen's arms, pulling him onto the bed.

"Err...Seto-kun?" he asked wide-eyed. Kaiba refused to look at him.

"You're cold," he offered as an explanation.

"Thanks," he muttered, blinking. Then a wide smile settled on his face as he shifted under the covers, sharing the taller teen's heat, "I remember the dagger... It looked like the Eye."

"The Millennium Eye?"

"Yeah. The red eyes could be from that guy that I saw. I was watching him with that Lady... and then everything went black and I had the dagger in my hand... the dream became fuzzy after that..." he trailed off, rubbing his chest. The sensation of the blade sliding into his heart was still there.

"Who were you watching?" Kaiba asked quietly.

"This guy with black hair... and this woman... she had red hair and her eyes... her eyes were purple."

For a moment, Kaiba pictured a young redhead with Yuugi's eyes. It was interestingly funny, since the woman would be tall but the eyes would fit, and even then, the woman would resemble Yuugi...

"Seto-kun," Yuugi called suddenly, "Why would we dream this?"

"I don't know," he murmured tiredly, "but at least, now that you dreamed the same thing, and you _remember_ it... I think I will finally understand why I feel so much regret, why I feel so tired and defeated when I dream these things. Why I feel pain when I remember those eyes staring at me," he folded his legs, bringing his knees up and resting his face on them.

"The red or the blue eyes?" Yuugi asked, staring at the opposite wall.

"Both. _I did something terrible._"

"What did you do?" Yuugi asked absentmindedly.

_"I killed them."_

"You—" Yuugi's eyes widened as he turned to face the brunet, "Seto-kun!?"

"What!" his head snapped up, blinking his eyes as if waking from sleep.

"You were forcing yourself to remember again, weren't you?" Yuugi accused with a frown.

"Yes," he admitted with a sigh, "Did I say something?"

"That you killed the owners of the blue eyes and of the red eyes. But you didn't kill Kisara..."

"Might as well be blamed on me," Kaiba muttered, resting his face on his knees again.

"...do you think the same happened with the red-eyed one?"

"Probable. She would look like Kisara..."

"She?" Yuugi raised an eyebrow.

"I'm guessing."

"Oh. But I think I see your point."

There was a quiet knock on the door. Glancing at Kaiba for permission, and receiving a small positive wave, Yuugi called a quiet "come in" to the door.

Ishizu stepped inside and closed it behind her.

"May I ask what woke you, Yuugi-san?" she murmured, taking into the scene. Kaiba still rested his head on his knees, arms limply on the bed. Yuugi sat beside him, sharing the covers.

"A dream, Ishizu-san."

"Can you tell me what you dreamed of? And perhaps you as well, Kaiba-san," she murmured, approaching them and sitting on the chair Yuugi had briefly occupied.

Yuugi explained they had dreamed the same thing, and recounted what he remembered of his dream, with Kaiba adding a few details. Ishizu nodded in understanding.

"I will assume these dreams are ancient memories. Kaiba-san, it seems you are connected to whatever is happening. Please, believe us when we say that all the magic is real..."

"I never doubted," he muttered tiredly, "I just didn't care."

_That's right, _Yuugi remembered suddenly that all this time, Kaiba had never truly denied the existence of the shadows, he had simply been focused in defeating... the small boy took a shuddering breath. He did not want to think about _him_, not now.

"That's... that's _good_, Seto-kun..." Yuugi murmured, trying desperately to steer his mind away from...

"Yuugi..." Kaiba called with a sigh, eyes still closed. For a moment it seemed as if he was going to say something else, but gave up, and kept on with the previous subject, "I remember learning with Isis. I remember that we _knew_ we were cousins before all that happened. Someone had told us..." his voice had turned into a murmur, "But I can't remember who. I remember..." he frowned.

"Kaiba-san?" Ishizu asked with a frown at his sudden silence. Her eyes widened when he opened his own, staring at her, and looking so _open_, so _vulnerable_, that she was shocked into silence.

"I was taken by Akefia to his fortress," he whispered, frowning in confusion, "but I can't remember much more than that. I remember pacing the cells of the fortress, and later... I can only recall the wind whispering in my ears, the sun finally hitting my face, and my arms embracing someone..." his breath hitched, "someone with red eyes as we rode a horse in the desert."

Yuugi and Ishizu could only stare as Kaiba... as _Seto_, Yuugi thought to himself, finally dropped most of his shields. _It's about time_, Yuugi thought with a soft smile. He pressed a hand to Seto's shoulder in a warning before resting his head on the brunet's shoulder and closing his eyes, listening at the same time he tried to picture the tale in his head.

"I was then back at the palace," Seto's eyes glazed over in thought, _"My cousin waited. The Lady, the Seer and the other four Priests waited as well. The Lady had never been so overjoyed..."_

_"How did the Lady look like?"_ Yuugi asked quietly, dozing slightly. Ishizu watched the exchange with curious eyes.

_"Her hair was the color of Ra's blood as he entered the underworld,"_ Seto described, eyes closing and resting his chin on his knees, _"her eyes were kind, gentle... but she was fierce and she loved her husband like no other,"_ his smile was sudden, _"If my cousin had not forbid it, she would have taken Maat's feather and judged the criminals herself. But cousin was afraid..."_

Malik's scream woke the two from their daze and made Ishizu stand, alarmed.

_'And while I am gone... remember me always as the one that shared your soul,'_ Yuugi's eyes widened at the whisper, and he could not help but screech in surprise and fear.

And suddenly, the entire house was a flurry of movement and scared screams.

* * *

_"Oh, RA!"_ Malik was still saying loudly, "I'm very sorry," he babbled on, eyes wide and fearful looking around the room as if the shadows might jump him, "I was dreaming, and I don't remember, but something happened, and then I heard someone's voice, and it was so scary," he shivered, rubbing his arms to try and get back some warmth, "Isn't there something to heat up this place?" he whined. Anzu and Honda gave him looks of "are-you-crazy?" Kaiba was once again leaning against the wall, eyes closed, Ishizu was sitting in front of her brother and Rishid stood nearby, in case he was needed. They were all back at the living room.

Yuugi blinked at him as he sat beside Anzu, "It's actually too warm, Malik-kun. Are you sure you're alright?"

"It must be the memory of the desert," Rishid draped his cloak over Malik's shoulders. The blond pulled it closer, shivering still, "The desert is much hotter than Japan."

"Look," Malik interrupted, "All I know is that someone's going to kill, or something, or..."

"Malik-kun," Yuugi called softly, "It was just a dream. I dreamed the same thing. Can you tell what you saw?"

Slightly relieved by the fact that no one seemed to be in immediate danger, Malik sighed and closed his eyes, bringing the dream to mind. He shivered again.

He quietly recounted his dream, from the moment he had seen himself standing at an Egyptian Palace's doorway, going over how he passed a young man that refused to look at him — there had been a twinge of worry for the other... but he had to see the commotion, he could not stop, and the man had shaken his head. He would be alright, — and then he was running through the halls, and Seth had come out of a room with a somber look.

_"Someone killed her,_ he told me, _someone killed her and killed themselves right after..._ he had whispered, his eyes full of so much hate. I knew he had wanted to take revenge, and since there was no one else anymore... _I pitied..._"

Ishizu frowned as Malik's words alternated from Japanese to Egyptian, making the phrases difficult to understand.

_"Who did you pity?"_ she asked in the same language, hoping to keep him in the trance, to find out more. Malik let out a barking laugh.

_"Seth's lover, of course. He always--"_

Yuugi's gasp made Malik's eyes blink into focus. Ishizu sighed frustrated, but her eyes widened at what happened next.

_"Seth's lover!"_ Yuugi's eyes moistened as he felt a clutching pressure in his chest, _"How could I...! Seth!"_ he turned to a surprised Kaiba, lavender eyes narrowed in anger, _"What did you do! I know how you like to exaggerate things! Tsu had no blame!"_

"Snap out of it!" Kaiba growled, shaken. His heart was clenching at the sight of the purple eyes angry with him.

The room held its breath. All six occupants blinked when a phone ringing interrupted the scene, bringing Yuugi back. Kaiba took out his own, but it was off, Ishizu brought out another, frowning. She opened it and held it to her ear.

"Ishizu Ishtar," she murmured, "May I ask what business you have?" she listened for a few moments, her eyes narrowing, before she mumbled a positive answer and clicked the phone shut, "Could you all go on trying to get answers? I will be back shortly. Something... _strange... _happened," she sighed.

"How much do you wanna bet it has to do with this?" Honda said dryly, pointing to the three teens that had all slipped into trances that day.

"All my money, Honda-san," Ishizu told him with a dry, bitter smile, "All my money."

* * *

Two hours later, Ishizu gone somewhere, everyone had taken a bath and was then back at the living room properly dressed. Yuugi had convinced Kaiba to sit, though he sat in a corner aside Yuugi himself on the couch, and everyone else seemed to be comfortable around the living room. The silent tension made the hairs on the back of their heads rise. 

_And with all this commotion,_ Kaiba thought, eyes sweeping discreetly over the room, _I begin to wonder what we will find._ His past self now had a lover, there was someone he might have judged unfairly, this '_Tsu_', and they still had so little pieces to put together... if felt like an enormous puzzle, and though some pieces fit against each other, the others were from another corner of the same puzzle. Yuugi had been mad at Seth... he wondered what had he done to get the Pharaoh angry, after all, Yuugi was the Pharaoh's reincarnation.

_Did the Pharaoh kill himself?_ He wondered with a small frown, _did he kill anyone else? _He wondered again, Malik's tale coming to mind. Kaiba then closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. _We are missing too many things. And I feel as if there is something I am not seeing._

"What are we going to do?" Anzu asked suddenly, looking at them somewhat frightened.

"I suppose... we go on," Yuugi murmured, "I don't think there is anything we can do, now."

"We need more clues to figure this out," Kaiba told them, eyes closed.

"But we're changing still," Malik breathed as he stared at the CEO, "Kaiba, go look in a mirror."

"Are you implying I'm ugly?" he muttered under his breath.

"No. Just go look."

Annoyed, the blue-eyed teen rose and walked to the bathroom, said blue eyes narrowed. Malik turned to Yuugi and started counting.

"5," the steps in the hallway stopped.

"4," the door to the bathroom opened.

"3," Malik mouthed, evading the hand that swatted at his head.

"2," they heard some shuffling around.

"1," Silence.

"0?" Malik murmured meekly.

"MY HAIR IS **_NOT_ RED**!!!"

_

* * *

__Somewhere, Japan - November 26th, 1999, 4:38am._

"What is the meaning of this?" Ishizu snapped, blue eyes dark with anger.

"Ishtar-sama," one of the police officers shook under her glare. It was nothing compared to Kaiba's glare, but it did its work, and she only used it in certain situations. Like this one.

"Ishizu-san," an archeologist colleague of hers walked out a room to greet her, "Don't worry about them, I am sorry for calling you here at this ungodly hour," he sighed.

"Worry not," she replied, eyes softening as he took her arm gently and led her elsewhere, "I was already awake. What happened?"

"I believe you will find this interesting, Ishizu-san," her colleague gave her an enigmatic smile, "and the police needs you to translate."

"A tablet?" she raised her eyebrow. _The police..?_

"No," he chuckled, opening a door.

Sitting on a bench was a youth of 17-18 years at the most. His hair was dirty and matted, making it impossible for Ishizu to identify its color, and he looked as if he was lightly sleeping where he sat. His clothes — cheap pants and jacket, dirty shirt and untied sneakers — had cuts from blades everywhere, including the sneakers. One of them had a hole as if a blade had been cleanly thrust into it, top to bottom, with no resistance. He was sitting slightly hunched over, hair reaching his middle backs. His eyes were closed and his breathing soft. Beside him sat a girl, and her clothes — shirt and short jean jacket, pants and no shoes, she was bare-feet — were in the same state as his, but hers looked as if they had been torn apart, not cleanly cut. Makeshift belts held her jean jacket closed and her pants up. Her hair cascaded down her backs, dirty and matted, to her waist. From the few patches with little dirt, Ishizu saw white hair. She was resting her head on his shoulder, eyes closed and lips slightly parted.

Slowly approaching, Ishizu exhaled. They looked familiar. An albino girl and a long-haired boy. Foreigners? _Not really_, her mind whispered.

At about three feet away, the boy snapped his eyes open at one of her steps, ruby orbs locking with her gaze, making her faulter. Ishizu sucked in a breath as a whirlwind of emotions assaulted her mind.

_And the grief._ She wanted to cry.

_"Who are you?"_ the boy snapped, startling her. She blinked. So _this_ was why she was called?

_"You don't speak Japanese, do you?"_ the language flowed freely from her mouth. The youth blinked, mouth opening but no sound escaping. Then, suddenly, his eyes brightened even as he tightened his arm around the girl.

_"Finally someone that I can understand! All these other people keep speaking in a language I never heard before, and they started to threaten me and my sister,"_ he trailed off, glaring at the people accompanying her. She chuckled.

_"Fear not,"_ she murmured, stepping closer slowly, _"They cannot understand us," _she blinked as he visibly relaxed at that. He relaxed so much, in fact, she noticed that even in his sleep, he had been poised to attack anyone approaching. She smiled slightly, _"May I sit beside you?"_

_"As you wish,"_ he indicated the bench with his hand. There was plenty of room for her without him needing to move, _"So that's why they never spoke something I could understand. I noticed they tried different languages, but never heard any of them before..."_

Ishizu turned to the confused officers and the smug archeologist observing them. "In how many languages did you try to speak with him?"

"Almost all, ma'am," a man murmured with a raised eyebrow, "No one's ever heard what he speaks, but he didn't seem to understand English, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and many others."

"It's no wonder you never heard it," she clucked her tongue, "It's the language spoken in Ancient Egypt by the nobles," turning back to the boy, _"We have many languages nowadays. They tried quite a bit with you."_

_"I only know the Language of the Gods and Latin," the_ boy pushed his hair back with one hand, in an arrogant gesture. If his hair was clean, it might have made the movement more graceful, _"But nothing else."_

_"My name is Ishizu. Could you tell me yours?"_ Ishizu wondered quietly.

_"It's a strange story," _he licked his lips, suddenly nervous as his free hand rose to tug lightly at some strands of his hair, _"You may not believe it. The only thing I am completely sure, is that yesterday morning I knew it," _he released a frustrated sigh, _"Yesterday I knew who I was."_

_"You mean, you remember nothing of your life?"_

_"Naught a piece," _he confirmed, _"Except that this girl is my sister. We've been always together, through thick and thin, and nothing will tear us apart," _he hugged her shoulders, burying his face in her hair.

_"I see. Do you have anything against coming with me? Some of my trusted ones can understand and speak this language."_

_"Not really," _he smiled, _"It would be better being surrounded by people I can understand rather than these odd ones."_

Ishizu chuckled. "He will be coming with me," she informed the police, "He cannot speak Japanese and I don't think he'd appreciate us questioning his sister. Where I am now, there is a group of people that can understand and talk to him. Call my cell phone if you need anything."

"One last thing, Ishizu-sama," a woman bowed respectfully, "if you would, ask them if they stole anything in the streets," the Tomb Keeper frowned.

_"Were you thieves in the streets?" _she asked him with a frown. He immediately scowled.

_"No. Everything we had was either ours or given to us. But considering I remember nothing, I cannot tell you what was given and what is ours."_

_"Very well,"_ she narrowed her eyes at the woman, anger starting to flare once again, "Anything you find that seems to not be theirs was given to them," she said coldly, "but they can't tell you what is theirs and what is not. If you will, return what they had with them."

The woman bowed, frowning.

And in fifteen minutes, Ishizu sat in the passenger seat of a cab, hands resting on her lap, listening to the soft breathing of both teens on the back. The boy had carried his sister, as she had been too exhausted to wake up, and now they both truly slept relaxed.

Outside, the sun was finally rising. Winter was taking its toll on her and her brother, as they were from Egypt, and used to high heat. The cab driver had asked for directions only once, and she was left to gaze at the sunrise. The light was making her tired, she had been woken by Yuugi's scream too early, even for her. With a quick prayer to _Ra_, she closed her eyes.

But not even twenty minutes later, her eyes snapped open, and before she realized what she was doing, she had already ordered the cab to pause and was inside a random shop, hand brushing over hair dye. She picked a brown shade, one that would come out with water, paid for two units, and was soon back in the cab as if nothing had happened. For a moment she looked down at the plastic bag now in her lap, confused. Then she shrugged, her intuition had rarely been wrong...

* * *

_Kame Game Shop - 6:25am._

When the cab arrived at Yuugi's shop, she stepped out and opened the other door to shake the boy awake before paying the driver. Seeing that the boy had taken his sister out of the car, she turned and walked to the front door, the engine of the cab growling lowly as it was driven away. Ishizu rang the doorbell. Turning to observe the twins, she had to suppress a smile at the sweet sight they made. He had his right arm around her waist and her left arm around his neck, since he had no strength left to carry her, and while she slept away, his eyes would droop every now and then, his form swaying lightly even though he tried to stay awake.

A ruffled Yuugi opened the door, blinking at the two dirt-covered teens, but not worrying as Ishizu was there.

"Do I ask?" he murmured, lips twitching.

"I'll explain to everyone," she grinned. He nodded and stepped aside to let them pass. The boy, still half-dragging his sister followed Ishizu inside.

The mess that met her eyes explained why Yuugi seemed at the same time, amused and annoyed.

"Do _I_ ask?" she murmured to the small teen.

"Malik pointed out Seto-kun's hair was red instead of brown," Yuugi explained with a sigh, watching as Anzu sweat-dropped in the living room and Honda and Malik were punching the bathroom door, "Seto-kun freaked out when he looked into a mirror. First he came here, livid with anger, trying to get a confession out of someone that supposedly dyed his hair. He gave up when everyone looked confused, and then locked himself in the bathroom. He's not coming out until we get brown hair dye," Yuugi's lips twitched again.

Ishizu chuckled, "Ah, my intuition scores another one," she murmured, leaving a confused Yuugi as she walked over. Pushing Honda and her brother out of the way, she knocked softly on the bathroom's door.

"What?" Kaiba's irritated and somewhat defeated voice sounded.

"Maybe you will like what I brought, Kaiba-san," she said with a smile. He opened the door less than an inch, a narrowed blue eye staring at her. She showed the plastic bag to him. Opening the door a bit more, he reached out to take the bag, and she held it for a moment more, admiring his dark-red hair.

"The color of sundown," she smiled, letting go of the plastic, "Beautiful. Why do you want to get rid of it so badly?"

He shifted, uneasy, "None of your business," he told her sulkily, turning and entering the bathroom with the bag after seeing its contents.

Ishizu chuckled again, turning and sitting on one of the couches. The ruby-eyed boy sat beside her, sister beside him still in his embrace. Yuugi winced at the thought of cleaning the couch later.

_"This is Yuugi,"_ she gestured to the small teen, talking to the now-awake-nameless-boy, _"That would be Honda and Anzu, those over at the window my brother, Malik, and his adoptive brother, Rishid. The one in the bathroom was Mr. Kaiba."_

_"My greetings," _the boy nodded his head in a small bow, _"Yuugi, Honda, Anzu, Malik and Rishid. Why was ... Kaiba?"_ at her nod he went on, _"in that room?"_

_"He is unhappy with his hair," _she told him with an amused smile.

_"Ishizu, quit talking about me,"_ the voice sounded loud from the bathroom and the boy jumped, startled.

_"How many of them speak this?"_ the boy asked slowly.

_"I, Malik-kun, Rishid-san, and Seto-kun,"_ Yuugi told him with a smile. The honorific was a strange fit within the ancient language, but no one really minded.

_"Set?" _The boy frowned.

_"Seto Kaiba," _Ishizu told him, _"Forgive me, I should have introduced all our names to you. Yuugi Mutou, Hiroto Honda, Anzu Masaki, Malik and Rishid Ishtar, and I am Ishizu Ishtar."_

The boy nodded, confused. Honda and Anzu stared at him.

_"You don't speak anything else?"_ Yuugi asked curiously.

_"I speak Latin," _the boy sniffed.

_"Ah, sorry. It's just these two languages aren't really used anymore. If you stay here, you'll end up learning Japanese, don't worry," _Yuugi told him, clapping his hands, "Now, who wants breakfast?!" he called cheerfully. Then he paused, a hand to his chin as he thoughtfully looked at all his friends, "are we going to school today, or skipping again?"

* * *

_Somewhere, Japan - November 26th, 1999, 5:42pm._

_How aimlessly can I walk?_ He wondered to himself, blowing his black hair away from his eyes. It didn't seem like too long, though, before his foot was caught on something.

Looking down, he spotted a small worn out bag. Taking it into his hands, he noted how little it weighted. He looked around, and then shrugged. Well... someone lost it... maybe making posters of a lost bag would be a good idea? He grinned. _As if a bag could be treated like a dog._

Shouldering the small bag, he decided to ponder on it later.

But when he reached his home, he was so tired of walking so much, that he let the small bag drop on the ground and it rolled underneath his bed. Tired of walking for what felt like hours nonstop, he fell on the bed and was asleep in an instant, the bag slipping out of his mind as well.

After all, the bag was no pressing matter to him.

* * *

_**Obs.: 1. **I've changed the year in which the two chapters happen. The first snippet, before the Prologue, is still happening in 1997, maybe in the middle, or even before, the series somewhere. The story is happening in 1999, nearing 2000._

_**2. **Italics with or without quotes being Ancient Egyptian or thoughts still apply, except where it is obvious (phone calls and such), but it doesn't apply to the snippets, as they are going to be in italics always._

_**3.** As I mentioned before, not everything is written, so I'm going to be changing and tweaking what I've written previously. **ALWAYS **read these observations or you might miss something, or not understand the story._

* * *

**Aika:** I'm deeply sorry about the ever-changing of this story… but the plot's still going over my head, and the more I think, the more ideas I put in or discard. The basic plot is still there, though. The challenges will stay on the newest chapter. 


	4. Meaningless

"_So, what do you guys think? Should we try?"_

"_I don't know... I mean, isn't it dangerous?"_

"_You really believe that? Look, let's try this spell here, what do you think?"_

"_Hmm... okay, seems harmless enough..."_

"_Great! Let's see... Here, this is the incantation."_

"_My call is to be heeded. Hear my power sing and come to me, cross from Death to Life, obey my call!"_

"_..."_

"_I knew it was fake."_

"_Okay, whose idea was that?"_

"_Yours."_

"_Err... Right. Hey, look... No wonder it didn't work."_

"_Hmm... I guess I got all this stuff... do you guys really wanna use blood?"_

"_Yeah. I mean, paint isn't as 'magical' as blood, is it?"_

"_..."_

"_Now it should work."_

"_**My call is to be heeded. Hear my power sing and come to me, cross from Death to Life, obey my call!**__"_

_The Trio's screeches were lost in the sound of the twin thunders that accompanied the forked lightning in the sky._

* * *

**Shadowed Dreams**

**Chapter 3 – Meaningless**

* * *

The following day was peaceful, Kaiba had retreated to his own house after receiving an ear-full from Mokuba, who had been worried when his older brother didn't come home or call. Ishizu, Malik and Rishid went back to their hotel, promising to visit and to keep their eyes and ears open for more clues. 

The nameless twins, trying to help, had come up with names for themselves, and the group was grateful for having something to call them instead of 'you' or 'the boy' or 'the girl'. Now properly named Kyo Jaki and Saki Koori, they asked to stay with Yuugi. He was the only one seemed to understand them better, as even Ishizu stumbled on a few words of their dialect. Sugoroku offered to enroll them in Yuugi's school, but was promptly shot down when they couldn't understand a word of what he said. Two days later they could already understand simple sentences, and the idea was brought up again.

"_It's not that surprising," _Ishizu assured Yuugi when he called, worried, _"They are in a place where only one person speaks their language, it's a bit of a survival instinct to learn that fast, and since they only lost their memories, there's the possibility they both knew Japanese before the amnesia took place. It's only a matter of remembering, not learning something else entirely."_

Yuugi had hung up frowning over the matter. That could also mean that the twins had the innate knowledge of the Divine Language. _Maybe,_ Yuugi thought while watching Kyo and Saki playing chess, _they forgot everything and the need to speak to each other made the knowledge of a past life from Egypt surface?_ It wasn't far-fetched. If all the memories of this life had been suddenly erased, they had resorted to something 'long forgotten'.

"Maybe having people around that only speak Japanese will be a good influence," the small teen mused. Frowning, he muttered, "Why does everything have to be connected one way or another?"

On the third day after Ishizu's first visit, Monday 29th, Yuugi did his routine of waking up and getting ready for school before going down for breakfast. It was a surprise to find his grandfather trying to cook with Kyo hovering over him.

"What are they doing?" Yuugi asked Saki, who sat at the table watching the pair amusedly.

"Elder Sugoroku was teaching brother to…" she licked her lips, trying to find the word, "make food?" she murmured with a sheepish glance.

"Cook," he grinned.

"Yes, to cook," she nodded gratefully, "and brother began… pushing his finger to… _that_," she frowned, pointing at the stove.

"He began pointing or poking?" Yuugi made the gestures.

"Poking," Saki smiled.

"And that is a stove," the teen continued, "it is used to make fire and heat up things."

She cocked her head to the side and made a noise of understanding.

"Grandpa," Yuugi called, "we're going to be late if you keep this up."

"Oh!" the man shooed Kyo away, "breakfast is almost ready, but stay near them in school, Yuugi, they will need you to explain a few things. It seems they don't know how modern equipment works…" he chuckled.

"Yes well," Yuugi squeaked, suddenly noticing something Kyo and Saki had in common with… "I'm hungry, please?"

"Of course," Sugoroku smiled somewhat sadly at him. He quietly wondered when the small teen would stop trying to avoid his memories…

"Grandpa," Yuugi called with a frown, suddenly, "You woke up with our screams a couple days ago, didn't you?"

"Why, yes, I did," he answered distractedly.

"Why didn't you come check on what was happening?"

"Well, considering past records, and that a few moments later everything was quiet again, I assumed you lot had everything under control. I was right, wasn't I?"

"Well, yes…"

"There, I wasn't needed," Sugoroku smiled while placing food in their plates.

Anzu and Honda met up with the three as they walked to school and the chatter grew again, Kyo and Saki mostly listening and giving their opinions when they understood what was being talked about. Saki's uniform was one she had borrowed from Anzu the day before, just as Kyo's was one borrowed from Honda, as they had the same height.

The twins were short of stunning, particularly after they had been so careful in cleaning themselves. Kyo's ruby eyes were sharp and he seemed to grasp almost anything that he saw, his hair was a black so deep that the others couldn't help but wonder if it was absorbing light instead of reflecting it, and his face was smooth and angular, though it bordered on feminine.

Saki's eyes were a deep sapphire, resembling the blue of a darkened sky, not yet night. Her hair, as Ishizu had noticed before, was a silvery white color, reflecting light almost as if it was some kind of metal instead of hair. She was less worried than her brother about learning things, but just as observant. They were both slender and held a subtle grace while walking, but at the same time they seemed somewhat oblivious to their beauty.

Upon reaching the school building, Anzu and Honda left to class, while Saki and Kyo followed Yuugi to the principal's office.

Yuugi quickly explained their situation, giving the excuse that they had just returned from Egypt after living there for most of their lives, coming back to visit the country they had been born in. Now, they were staying with Yuugi and his family as the teen spoke their language.

The cover-story was accepted without many questions, and soon the three were walking to join Anzu and Honda in class. Upon entering, Yuugi handed the teacher the quick note the principal had given him, explaining their lateness, and headed to his seat, Kyo right behind him.

The small star-haired teen could only blink as Kyo took Jounouchi's seat. Saki paused a moment at the front before occupying a seat behind Honda.

"I see you have taken your seats," Sagawara, the history teacher, noted absently, "Well, class, these two that got in with Yuugi are _Jaki, Kyo_ and _Koori, Saki_, please make them feel welcome. Now, to our lesson…"

But Yuugi didn't concentrate on the lesson. He was still somewhat baffled at Kyo's behavior… the boy hadn't hesitated even a moment before taking Jounouchi's seat.

_As if he belonged there._

The small teen frowned, but his thoughts were interrupted by a small ball of paper landing on his desk. Looking around he caught Ryou looking at him. The boy was wringing his hands nervously, and he seemed somewhat jumpy.

Yuugi raised an eyebrow mildly surprised, but decided to ask later. He opened the small rolled up paper. The writing was rushed and strangely pointy, as if the writer had been shaking.

_Yuugi, did you hear him? Three days ago?_

Gaping, the small teen turned to stare at Ryou. The poor albino was even paler than usual and had small bags under his eyes. Yuugi took his pen and hastily answered.

_Yes. Did you hear him?_

He heard Ryou release a choked sob. The answer had one blurred stain.

_Yes. And he wasn't weighted down by that darkness, he was… himself._

Yuugi scribbled back.

_I think Malik heard too. Come to the shop after school, we need to talk._

Ryou raised his eyes and nodded when he saw Yuugi was watching him. The albino's eyes were somewhat puffy and red, hinting at how affected he had been by the matter. He hadn't been in classes the previous Saturday and Friday either.

Everything went smoothly until fourth period.

Vision blurring, Yuugi sat back on his chair after a particularly tiring presentation, feeling drained. He rested his head on his arms and promptly fell asleep. No one was worried, it was a normal occurrence between students.

They became worried when the small teen didn't wake with the teacher calling him. No sooner the class started fussing over Yuugi, the students noticed that Ryou refused to wake as well. They were then taken to the infirmary.

Kyo and Saki couldn't help but feel a little lost. They resorted to following Kaiba around, as he was the only one who could understand them fully, and the brunet was not happy about it.

"_Would you two just stop following me?_" he snarled after some moments of the pair trailing him in the halls.

"_We can't,_" Kyo told him softly, "_Yuugi-san understood us, but now… you're the only one who can explain to us what we don't understand._"

"_Please, Kaiba-san?_"

Kaiba made the mistake of looking at them when Saki made her plea. Those sapphire-blue eyes pleading, a completely different shade from his own eyes… his eyes glazed over and he held his breath, exhaling suddenly with a whisper.

Saki and Kyo blinked, wondering what got into the blue-eyed teen, but he snapped back into reality and looked away, his nose pink.

"_Fine,_" he growled, squashing any chances they had to ask what happened, "_But stay out of my way otherwise._"

"Thank you Kaiba-san," Kyo licked his lips, the language flowing from his mouth somewhat clumsily. The taller teen could already feel a headache coming.

"Hn," the next classes consisted of Kaiba explaining quietly unfamiliar terms and theories, carefully telling basic knowledge they didn't seem to have acquired.

At lunch, the brunet reluctantly joined their small group, taking out his laptop and doing a good job of ignoring them until he felt Kyo tug on his uniform.

"_Yes?_" he asked tiredly.

"_Why do you not join them?_" Kyo asked quietly, sweeping the table with his gaze.

"_Because I have other things to do,_" he murmured, going back to his work.

"_What are those?_" the ruby-eyed youth asked curiously.

"_My work,_" Kaiba muttered distractedly.

"_Oh… what are they for?_"

"_In practical use, they have another appearance, more beautiful,_" Kaiba's lips curled in a half-smile, "_They are games, programmed in computers. Their images are quite real._"

"_Can you show me?_" Kyo murmured, fingers reaching to touch the screen of the laptop.

The action made the brunet's eyes widen. Out of reflex, he grasped the boy's hand, preventing him from touching the sensitive screen and stared at the bewildered dark-haired teen.

In a moment where their eyes met, when Kyo looked back at him, Kaiba was drowning in blood.

* * *

_Laughter._

"_Do you know how to ride a horse, High Priest?!" it was a joyous shout. Joy over finally releasing restraints on the desire to kill something._

"_I am not an useless child!!" angry answer, shouted over the noise of the wind._

"_Then ride this horse!!"_

"_Are you daft, Seer?!"_

"_I might be," it was a whisper in his ear that made him shiver, but he was distracted by the roar of a dragon behind them._

* * *

"KAIBA!" _Was that Jounouchi?_

"AH!"

He looked around wildly, trying to determine where… he was still at lunch, on the ground beside the table where the group had reunited.

"_You fainted,_" Kyo supplied quietly from where he kneeled beside the brunet, "_You were trashing around and murmuring things we could not hear._"

Kaiba sat, sweat running down his forehead. He felt goose bumps rise in his arms and shivered, blinking back stray moisture in his eyes.

"_Did Yuugi wake?_" he asked quietly, accepting Kyo's hand to pull him up without thinking, and the onlookers held back a gasp of surprise at the display, quickly scattering at Kaiba's glare.

"_Honda-san went to check. We all thought you'd stay unconscious like them._"

"_I don't think that I fainted for the same reason as they did,_" the brunet scowled.

"_What for, then?_" Kyo asked, blinking.

"_We'll talk about this later,_" Kaiba shook his head.

"You okay, Kaiba-kun?" he turned to meet Otogi's curious eyes.

"Fine, Dice-boy," he grumbled, scowling.

"Okay," he said cheerfully, then turned to the twins, "And who might you be?"

The two teens stumbled through presentations with small help from the blue-eyed CEO beside them. Otogi, however, didn't seem to mind. He bowed courteously.

"_Otogi, Ryuuji_, at your service, sir, m'lady," he gave them a charming grin.

Kyo weakly grinned back and Saki smiled gratefully.

"Thank you," she murmured awkwardly, "But Kaiba-san be only one to understand us now."

Otogi sighed dramatically.

"Really, _Seto_," he stretched, making the brunet growl, "Must you steal away every beautiful person I come across? First my lovely Jounouchi, then my dearest Shizuka-chan, really, don't you have any shame?"

Otogi's wicked smile spoke volumes.

"For your information," Kaiba gritted his teeth, "I did not 'steal' any of them, nor do I have _any_ interest in them. Now, leave us be, Dice-boy."

As the brunet turned away and began walking, Kyo and Saki following and exchanging half-curious half-worried glances, Otogi couldn't help but smirk.

_Such a delightful person to play with... You really are as easy to rile up as Jounouchi… Now, what can I do with you..?_

* * *

The day finally ended, and Kaiba felt drained. Otogi had gone out of his way to annoy him whenever he could, Kyo and Saki had still required explanations, and Yuugi and Ryou had not woken. He was easily convinced by Saki to take the two small teens back to the Game Shop, which he did gladly, if only to have everyone around him shut up. 

He had a headache.

Oh, what a day.

Now, sitting there in the Game Shop's living room, staring a nothing in particular, his mind wandered while he tried to lessen the noise in his head. He had already called Mokuba, warning him he was at Yuugi's, and the boy had decided he'd go there as well. Neither wanted a repeat of three days ago, Mokuba because of how worried he had been, and Kaiba because… really, Mokuba could be _loud_ when he wanted to…

Kaiba closed his eyes and rested his face on his hand, elbow on the arm of the couch. Easily, without meaning to, he slipped into a half-doze.

He did not see Jounouchi standing at the door, looking at him with a strange gleam in his eyes. His waist-length blond hair flowed as he walked over. Silently, the blond leaned over the other, holding stray strands of hair and whispered some words. He looked at the window, straightening, then walked back the way he came.

* * *

"_You are all more tied together than you think," a frown of confusion._

"_How so?" the Pharaoh's voice echoed in the hall, hand curling around a smaller hand of another person._

"_You are all related, in some way," a chuckle, "You, my High Priest, and you, Pharaoh, are cousins."_

"_Really?" Astonishment._

"_Yes. But I can't tell much more than that… I can't see that far."_

"_We're all being fools, wondering about this," the woman chastised, "There was a reason we didn't know, and it must have been important."_

"_She is right," the Pharaoh sighed, "I'm afraid we must keep a façade of ignorance, then."_

_

* * *

_"Onii-sama?" 

Kaiba's eyes blinked open, albeit still glassy from sleep. Mokuba's smiling face swam in front of him.

"Mokuba," he murmured in a quiet greeting.

"I heard Yuugi and Ryou fainted in class," his smile turned to a cute half-pout half-frown.

"They did," the older brother stood, stretching.

"Do you know what happened?"

"No, Otouto-chan, I don't."

Mokuba's stance changed just slightly, eyes narrowing and face resembling more his brother's.

"It has to do with the Shadows, that much is obvious."

"The problem is _how_," Kaiba added, once again sitting.

Their talk was interrupted by a loud sound of something falling and breaking.

"_BROTHER!_" Saki's screech reverberated.

Mokuba and Kaiba were quick to get on their feet and run towards the noise, inside the room Kyo and Saki were sharing. The twins refused to be separated, and it seemed the difference in gender was not a problem to them.

"_Brother, wake up,_" Saki pleaded, eyes desperately roving over Kyo's unconscious form, searching for injuries.

"Is he hurt?" Mokuba asked, with a small frown.

"No," Saki hiccupped, "Thank _Ra…_"

"What happened?" Kaiba crouched beside the twins, lifting the boy's shoulders and carefully pulling him to his bed.

"I don't know," Saki let a tear fall before she scrubbed her eyes, trying to prevent the following tears.

"You were up here with him and you don't know?" Mokuba frowned, disbelieving.

Saki bit her lower lip and did not answer, staring down at Kyo. She shook her head. Both Kaiba brothers narrowed their eyes. Something was obviously amiss.

"_I don't know!_" Saki suddenly cried, hands holding her temples, "_I can't… I don't… what __**did**__ happen?_" she whispered to herself.

"_You don't remember?_" Kaiba asked pointedly.

Saki shook her head.

_Well_, Kaiba thought sarcastically, _another mystery, another puzzle. How wonderful._

* * *

"_No time," he gasped breathlessly, "There's no time!" he shouted, frustrated._

_The letter he had been writing was violently crumpled and thrown across the room._

_It hit the bedside lamp, which fell._

_The spell was acting up again._

_He moaned quietly in pain as his thoughts fogged up and he fainted._

* * *

Yuugi blearily opened his eyes, confused. 

_What happened?_

Every muscle in his body ached, he felt so tired. But he frowned.

_School. Presentation. Dream. Who was in pain?_

He sat with difficulty. He felt so drained, so…

A groan beside him made him turn and squint to see who was laying on the bed beside his.

Ryou.

"Yuugi?" was the first thing that passed the albino's lips, as he blinked awake.

"You should be worrying about yourself," the star-haired teen murmured with a weak chuckle.

"Heh."

"Ryou, you heard him right? You heard…"

"Bakura. _My Darkness,_" the whisper was quiet.

"I heard… I heard Aten too," Yuugi murmured, a lump forming in his throat, eyes burning.

Ryou crawled out of his bed and climbed on Yuugi's. They leaned on each other for a few moments, craving whatever comfort the other could give. _Whoever said misery loves company didn't know how right they were…_Ryou closed his eyes.

"Yuugi-san?" Saki's tearful voice sounded as she opened the door, sniffling.

"Come in, Saki-chan," Yuugi rubbed his eyes, sitting straight. Ryou peered curiously at the door.

The albino girl closed the door behind her, hiccupping.

"May I?" she pointed to the bed they were sitting on. They nodded and she joined them.

"What is it?" Yuugi asked concerned.

"_I can't remember,_" she whimpered, hiding her face in her hands, "_My brother got hurt and I can't remember how or why!_"

Ryou gaped at her.

"Yuugi..?" he turned to the boy with wide eyes.

"This is Koori, Saki. Ishizu found her and her brother somewhere, they've got amnesia. _What do you mean he got hurt and you don't remember how?_"

"_I was there… and suddenly I'm standing in the hallway, hearing the crash in my brother's room… and I'm not surprised by it, I was expecting it, Yuugi-san…_" she hiccupped again. She took a moment to compose herself, rubbing her eyes, "_They're worried about you both, you should rise and see them._"

The two boys exchanged glances.

"You understand her, Ryou-kun?"

"Yes," he smiled ruefully, "Bakura taught me how to speak it."

"Let's go, then," Yuugi returned the smile, rising. Saki and Ryou were quick to follow him, walking outside the room.

* * *

Late that night, Yuugi released a deep sigh, letting his tired frame fall on his bed, the mattress making a soft squishing sound. 

Seto and Mokuba had been in the living room when him, Saki, and Ryou came in. The two quickly explained the matter, finding it strange that Saki and Kyo, who had woken up and been able to answer simple questions, did not remember whatever seemed to have happened. Saki stayed in the corner of the couch, silently sobbing with her face in her hands. The poor girl seemed to blame herself, and it made her devastated that she had left her brother alone, wondering if such a thing would repeat itself in a critical moment. Then Anzu and Honda had arrived, both being quickly informed of the last few happenings, and Yuugi had let his mind drift away.

And just as the last few weeks, his thoughts turned to... **him**.

_I wonder what he's doing now..._ eyes blank and vacant, Yuugi began to imagine several scenarios... of **him** being happy in his element, glorious Egypt as it had been so long ago. Of **him** as regal as he was, even while being casual and friendly… and a woman by his side.

_I feel so cold…_ he shivered, closing his eyes and curling in on himself, automatically pulling the covers over his body.

Aten was happy in Death. Aten was where he belonged. He should be happy for Aten, but...

_...why do I feel like everything around me is meaningless..?_

Soft sobbing could be heard from his room for a while.

* * *

She ran as much and as fast as she could, holding her precious treasure against her chest. Fools. They dared think she'd even consider them worthy ones of receiving such a gift? 

They could dream on. Never in a million years...

Hiding in an alley, she took out a long, thin brush and a small, sharp blade. Cutting her palm, she doused the brush in her blood, being quick to draw a dark symbol on the wall.

Her wicked smile went unseen.

She wondered for a moment why they called it _The Evil Eye_...

_Well_, she mused as it slowly opened a purple-black portal for her to cross, _Maybe because it is __**my**__ symbol…_

She ignored the shouts of their pawns on the street. They were unimportant, easily manipulated. She crossed the portal, preparing herself for a long walk.

And walk she did, in the Shadow Realm, crossing an entire ocean just to be where she would be needed soon.

_Soon… maybe the pact I moderated is finally complete?_

* * *

_**Obs.: 1. **__I've changed and tweaked things from previous chapters, mostly correcting grammar and spelling errors._

_**2. **__Prologue's title has changed (Tattered Remains)._

_**3.**__ In Chapter 1, I've added a word I had forgotten while typing (__bleach)._

_**4.**__ In Chapter 2, Ishizu only tells the cops that the boy doesn't speak Japanese._


End file.
